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Feds Target "Mongols" Biker Club's Intellectual Property

Posted by kdawson on from the shirt-off-your-back dept.

couchslug writes in with a Reuters account of a Federal raid on a California-based motorcycle club, the Mongols, on charges "ranging from murder and robbery to extortion, money laundering, gun trafficking and drug dealing." The interesting twist is that the authorities are asking the courts to seize the IP of the biker club — specifically, their trademarked name "Mongols." "Federal agents and police in seven states arrested more than 60 members of the Mongols motorcycle gang on Tuesday in a sweep that also targeted for the first time an outlaw group's 'intellectual property,' prosecutors said. The arrests cap a three-year undercover investigation in which US agents posed as gang members and their girlfriends to infiltrate the group, even submitting to polygraph tests administered by the bikers ... [T]he name 'Mongols,' which appears on the gang's arm patch insignia, was trademarked by the group. The indictment seeks a court order outlawing further use of the name, which would allow any police officer 'who sees a Mongol wearing this patch ... to stop that gang member and literally take the jacket right off his back' ..."

4 of 393 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Right...... by terraformer · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Yeah, it's not like the US government would ever stoop to things such as this. This is like spying on citizens without any sort of warrant, due process or chance for redress. That would *never* happen...

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  2. For those who say this is not "News for Nerds"... by florescent_beige · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I say "oh yeah?" What about RAID? Bike gangs have lots of raids. Also I think they beat someone with a model M keyboard so that's good credentials right there.

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  3. Re:Not how trademarks work by interstellar_donkey · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    ...
    Except for the simple fact that the Boy Scouts of America are a highly discriminatory hate group due to their views on homosexuality.

    So, if you affiliate with them, you are, in fact, affiliating yourself with people KNOWN for blatant discrimination against gays.

    Taking their IP from them is the only way to ensure you know what kids to throw rocks at.

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  4. Re:Intellectual Property? by FurtiveGlancer · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Can you imagine a married intellectual among them either? I thought not.

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